Thank you for watching! If you enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing to LetsGoWithD for more travel adventures. Your support helps us continue to create great content. 😊 By the way, our favorite part of the trip was the third high-speed train. The leather seating added a touch of luxury that made the journey extra special.
27:22 As mentioned on the little boat, it is a Piilot. Many harbors will send a pilot to larger vessels who will steer the ship in or out of the harbor. One the ship is out, the normal helmsman takes over. Hence the little boar escorting to pick up the pilot.
I had a feeling it was something like that! I actually saw it once before when taking the ferry to Newcastle. Thanks for confirming and explaining it further. It's always great to learn more details about these things.
Really cool, I was thinking of doing this trip next year with my girlfriend so it's great to see someone who has captured their experience, great stuff!
Thanks for your comment! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. It's an amazing trip, and I'm sure you'll have a great time with your girlfriend. I took the longer route for more of an adventure, but there's definitely a shorter option if you're interested. If you have any questions or need any tips, feel free to ask😊
Excellent trip report, I love long journeys involving more than one train. Thanks for the reservation details, I'm planning an Interrail trip early next year (my first to mainland Europe for over 45 years!) Looking forward to seeing more of your travels.
Thank you for your kind words! I”m glad you enjoyed the journey. All my train trips are with Interrail, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’m excited to share more of our travels with you. Have a great trip!
Yes, it's quite interesting! The Eurostar e320 trains are now being used for more European routes beyond just London. It opens up a lot of new travel options😊
This has to do with the fact that, because of construction and renovation work at Amsterdam, there are no direct Eurostar services to London from Amsterdam until December. Passengers now have to lay over at Brussels Midi to get to London. As these E320 sets would otherwise be collecting dust at a depo, they opted to used them on ex-Thalys routes from Amsterdam to Paris. I don't believe they will return on these services when the Eurostar facilities in Amsterdam are completed and operational once again.
Thanks for the detailed explanation! I had thought the change was due to the Eurostar and Thalys merger, but it makes sense that it's also related to the construction work in Amsterdam. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the routes once the renovations are complete. Thanks for the info😊
Thank you! We only did the outbound trip, and it was a nice but long experience. When we arrived in Marrakech, we flew back. Overall, it was a great journey, but flying back in just 3 hours felt really good 😄
Excellent long video D. You wrote that the second HST on Day 2 was the same as the first HST. I think the first was AVE S-100 built by Alsthom. Initial AVE equipment. The second was AVE S-102 built by Talgo. Known as 'Pato' [duck] for the shape of the cab. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for the clarification! At first, I thought they were the same, but I noticed the difference once I went inside. The first AVE high-speed train had comfortable leather seats, while the second one had fabric seats. I definitely prefer the leather ones. Thanks for the compliment and glad you enjoyed the video 😊
Nice journey and nice video. The little pastries you were wondering about are called "Cannelés". It's a specialty from Bordeaux, in the SouthWest of France. The Island you're seeing while traveling to spain is called "Ile de la Nadière". It's an ancien fisher's village. Due to difficult living conditions, it was abandoned around the 40's. The Castle you see just before arriving in Antequera is the Castillo fortaleza de Archidona. About your trip : I find it a bit complicated. Why so many train changes, as it adds costs for reservation ? From Paris, You could go by direct TGV to Barcelona, avoiding all those changes and the regional trains. Same for the part from Barcelona to Algeciras, that can be done with only two high speed trains. Just my opinion ...
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all my questions! I really appreciate it, and it’s impressive that you knew all that! To answer your question about why I took so many trains when there could have been a smoother, faster route-I completely agree with you. My wife and I tried to book 24 days before our trip, but everything was already sold out. We couldn’t make reservations, so we had to improvise. This made our journey longer, but we managed! Initially, we planned to go from Brussels on a high-speed train to Valence TGV Rhône-Alpes Sud, and from there, take another high-speed train to Barcelona. This way, we would have avoided Paris, the metro, and all the local trains, making the journey much easier. Then, the next day, we would take the two trains to Algeciras. Unfortunately, everything was sold out, so we had to get creative. In the end, it all worked out and we had an amazing trip and really enjoyed the ride!
@@LetsgowithD Wow, indeed ! Shame you had to spend so much money on the reservations. This Interrail system is a bit strange : you can go wherever you want with a free ticket, but you have to pay expensive reservations. I have a subscription for the whole French Railways, and I was never asked to pay to reserve my seat. Even the bed is free in the night trains !
@richardprovenzano894 Unfortunately, it is what it is. I think they're in the early stages of integrating a Euro rail ticket system. Right now, there are too many differences with reservation costs. I hope and believe this will change in the future. I know they're working on an app where you can buy all your tickets in one place instead of using separate websites. I think it will be ready by 2025/2026.
The availability and reservation costs of Interrail seats on Eurostar hardly make it worthwhile. Unless you are building your itinerary around the available seats, which kind of defeats the purpose of Interrail (freedom..).
I agree with you on this. Sometimes it's smarter to buy individual tickets instead of using Interrail. But for longer trips, Interrail can be really useful. I wish more countries would adopt Germany's approach, where you can board for free but pay a small fee for a guaranteed seat. That would be the ideal scenario for Interrail.
@@LetsgowithDI feel like for traditional interrail he high speed rail isn’t a good fit in the first place, with a possible exception for a pre-planned start and finish of the adventure.
I agree with you-Interrail isn’t quite where we’d like it to be yet. But I’m hopeful that we’ll get there eventually. It would be great if more European countries followed Germany’s lead with high-speed trains, or if we could have one unified system across Europe. Let’s call it an Interrail Deluxe Pass. I believe by the end of 2025, there will be one app to handle all the reservations😊
Thank you so much! I'm glad to hear the video was helpful. I hope you have an amazing trip from Amsterdam to Tangier! If you have any questions or need more tips, feel free to ask. Safe travels! 🙌
Thank you for clarifying! My wife and I walked all the way to the front and thought it was first class. I'll make sure to add a correction in the video and the description. Thanks for pointing that out🙏
Can someone explain why you still have to pay large sums of money for 'reservation' for the French and Spanish HSL trains when you have an Interrail pass? In Germany you only have to pay a few euro's cover charge when you have an unlimited travel pass and want to use an IC(E).
Some countries have very cheap seat reservations, while others are more expensive. I hope we can have a unified policy across Europe for reservations soon. I really like the German system where you can travel for free without a reservation, but if you want a guaranteed seat, the reservation costs just 8 euros. That seems reasonable to me!
I’ve heard that train companies in different countries are reluctant to give up control of their own policies, but I hope this changes in the future. If it does, Interrail will become even better for travelers!
I use Interrail in Europe, so most of the trip is covered. For high-speed trains, though, you sometimes have to pay a reservation fee to guarantee a seat. In Germany, you can travel for free without a reservation, but if you want to make sure you have a seat, there’s a small fee.
That would be great news! I think the World Cup in 2030, especially with Marrakesh being one of the host cities, will really speed up a lot of processes for trains.
That's interesting to know about the local pilot rules-it makes sense for safety. Now I understand why the boat came so close and then left again. Thanks for the information😊
Thanks for clarifying! It’s really sad to hear about the drought and its impact on olive farmers. I hope they see better times soon. It was interesting to see the trees-I noticed some looked like baby plants, while others were a bit bigger.
Cool video! I laughed really hard at the bus ride to the ferry because it seemed like there was noone in the driver's seat. Also just a heads-up that nestle is a horrible company that doesnt respect human rights
hanks for watching, and I'm glad you enjoyed the video! The bus ride to the ferry was something else-happy it made you laugh! And thanks for the heads-up about Nestlé; I'll definitely keep that in mind.
I get that flying is faster, but I’m more about enjoying the journey, the views, and the experiences along the way. If you take the quickest train route, it’s actually about 34 hours, but I went with a longer route to make the most of the trip! Thank you for sharing your thoughts 😊
Thank you for watching! If you enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing to LetsGoWithD for more travel adventures. Your support helps us continue to create great content. 😊
By the way, our favorite part of the trip was the third high-speed train. The leather seating added a touch of luxury that made the journey extra special.
27:22 As mentioned on the little boat, it is a Piilot. Many harbors will send a pilot to larger vessels who will steer the ship in or out of the harbor. One the ship is out, the normal helmsman takes over. Hence the little boar escorting to pick up the pilot.
I had a feeling it was something like that! I actually saw it once before when taking the ferry to Newcastle. Thanks for confirming and explaining it further. It's always great to learn more details about these things.
Really cool, I was thinking of doing this trip next year with my girlfriend so it's great to see someone who has captured their experience, great stuff!
Thanks for your comment! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. It's an amazing trip, and I'm sure you'll have a great time with your girlfriend. I took the longer route for more of an adventure, but there's definitely a shorter option if you're interested. If you have any questions or need any tips, feel free to ask😊
Excellent trip report, I love long journeys involving more than one train.
Thanks for the reservation details, I'm planning an Interrail trip early next year (my first to mainland Europe for over 45 years!)
Looking forward to seeing more of your travels.
Thank you for your kind words! I”m glad you enjoyed the journey. All my train trips are with Interrail, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’m excited to share more of our travels with you. Have a great trip!
Really inspiring trip! Thanks for sharing and greets from Barcelona! 🙂
Thanks so much for watching! I’m glad you found it inspiring. Greetings from Tokyo😊
I never thought that Eurostar E320 are now being used on European services. It was only possible if traveling to London.
Yes, it's quite interesting! The Eurostar e320 trains are now being used for more European routes beyond just London. It opens up a lot of new travel options😊
This happens since Eurostar merged with Thalys in 2023…
Thanks for the info and clarification
This has to do with the fact that, because of construction and renovation work at Amsterdam, there are no direct Eurostar services to London from Amsterdam until December. Passengers now have to lay over at Brussels Midi to get to London. As these E320 sets would otherwise be collecting dust at a depo, they opted to used them on ex-Thalys routes from Amsterdam to Paris. I don't believe they will return on these services when the Eurostar facilities in Amsterdam are completed and operational once again.
Thanks for the detailed explanation! I had thought the change was due to the Eurostar and Thalys merger, but it makes sense that it's also related to the construction work in Amsterdam. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the routes once the renovations are complete. Thanks for the info😊
Lovely video, - thanks for sharing...
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it 😊
what a lovely place in Tangier! but I prefer taking a plane...
Thank you! We only did the outbound trip, and it was a nice but long experience. When we arrived in Marrakech, we flew back. Overall, it was a great journey, but flying back in just 3 hours felt really good 😄
29:57 Good show and experience. Spell checker will help.
Thank you for the compliment! We're doing our best with grammar, and we really appreciate your feedback😊
18:27 welke app gebruik je? wel een hele interessante mooie reis
Dankje, de app heet Snelheidsmeter. Je ziet een teller met een rode wijzer en een zwarte achtergrond. De app is gratis.
Excellent long video D.
You wrote that the second HST on Day 2 was the same as the first HST.
I think the first was AVE S-100 built by Alsthom. Initial AVE equipment. The second was AVE S-102 built by Talgo. Known as 'Pato' [duck] for the shape of the cab.
Thanks for the video.
Thanks for the clarification! At first, I thought they were the same, but I noticed the difference once I went inside. The first AVE high-speed train had comfortable leather seats, while the second one had fabric seats. I definitely prefer the leather ones. Thanks for the compliment and glad you enjoyed the video 😊
Interessante reis zo te zien 😃
Bedankt! Het was inderdaad een interessante reis🧳
Nice journey and nice video.
The little pastries you were wondering about are called "Cannelés". It's a specialty from Bordeaux, in the SouthWest of France.
The Island you're seeing while traveling to spain is called "Ile de la Nadière". It's an ancien fisher's village. Due to difficult living conditions, it was abandoned around the 40's.
The Castle you see just before arriving in Antequera is the Castillo fortaleza de Archidona.
About your trip : I find it a bit complicated. Why so many train changes, as it adds costs for reservation ?
From Paris, You could go by direct TGV to Barcelona, avoiding all those changes and the regional trains.
Same for the part from Barcelona to Algeciras, that can be done with only two high speed trains.
Just my opinion ...
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all my questions! I really appreciate it, and it’s impressive that you knew all that!
To answer your question about why I took so many trains when there could have been a smoother, faster route-I completely agree with you. My wife and I tried to book 24 days before our trip, but everything was already sold out. We couldn’t make reservations, so we had to improvise. This made our journey longer, but we managed!
Initially, we planned to go from Brussels on a high-speed train to Valence TGV Rhône-Alpes Sud, and from there, take another high-speed train to Barcelona. This way, we would have avoided Paris, the metro, and all the local trains, making the journey much easier. Then, the next day, we would take the two trains to Algeciras. Unfortunately, everything was sold out, so we had to get creative. In the end, it all worked out and we had an amazing trip and really enjoyed the ride!
@@LetsgowithD Wow, indeed ! Shame you had to spend so much money on the reservations. This Interrail system is a bit strange : you can go wherever you want with a free ticket, but you have to pay expensive reservations. I have a subscription for the whole French Railways, and I was never asked to pay to reserve my seat. Even the bed is free in the night trains !
@richardprovenzano894 Unfortunately, it is what it is. I think they're in the early stages of integrating a Euro rail ticket system. Right now, there are too many differences with reservation costs. I hope and believe this will change in the future. I know they're working on an app where you can buy all your tickets in one place instead of using separate websites. I think it will be ready by 2025/2026.
The availability and reservation costs of Interrail seats on Eurostar hardly make it worthwhile. Unless you are building your itinerary around the available seats, which kind of defeats the purpose of Interrail (freedom..).
I agree with you on this. Sometimes it's smarter to buy individual tickets instead of using Interrail. But for longer trips, Interrail can be really useful. I wish more countries would adopt Germany's approach, where you can board for free but pay a small fee for a guaranteed seat. That would be the ideal scenario for Interrail.
@@LetsgowithDI feel like for traditional interrail he high speed rail isn’t a good fit in the first place, with a possible exception for a pre-planned start and finish of the adventure.
I agree with you-Interrail isn’t quite where we’d like it to be yet. But I’m hopeful that we’ll get there eventually. It would be great if more European countries followed Germany’s lead with high-speed trains, or if we could have one unified system across Europe. Let’s call it an Interrail Deluxe Pass. I believe by the end of 2025, there will be one app to handle all the reservations😊
Great video i was planning to make the same trip, this will help me a lot🙏👌
Thank you so much! I'm glad to hear the video was helpful. I hope you have an amazing trip from Amsterdam to Tangier! If you have any questions or need more tips, feel free to ask. Safe travels! 🙌
10:20 It is still second class, first class is 2+1 layout and have different colour theme
Thank you for clarifying! My wife and I walked all the way to the front and thought it was first class. I'll make sure to add a correction in the video and the description. Thanks for pointing that out🙏
Can someone explain why you still have to pay large sums of money for 'reservation' for the French and Spanish HSL trains when you have an Interrail pass? In Germany you only have to pay a few euro's cover charge when you have an unlimited travel pass and want to use an IC(E).
Some countries have very cheap seat reservations, while others are more expensive. I hope we can have a unified policy across Europe for reservations soon. I really like the German system where you can travel for free without a reservation, but if you want a guaranteed seat, the reservation costs just 8 euros. That seems reasonable to me!
I’ve heard that train companies in different countries are reluctant to give up control of their own policies, but I hope this changes in the future. If it does, Interrail will become even better for travelers!
What do you mean by "reservation" costs ? Cost of ticket ? Cost to reserve the seat ?
I use Interrail in Europe, so most of the trip is covered. For high-speed trains, though, you sometimes have to pay a reservation fee to guarantee a seat. In Germany, you can travel for free without a reservation, but if you want to make sure you have a seat, there’s a small fee.
Probably in six years you can go 800 km further south to Marrakech or agadir
That would be great news! I think the World Cup in 2030, especially with Marrakesh being one of the host cities, will really speed up a lot of processes for trains.
Boat not allowed out without a qualified local pilot. Once safely out of the port the boat picks the pilot up to take the pilot back to port.
That's interesting to know about the local pilot rules-it makes sense for safety. Now I understand why the boat came so close and then left again. Thanks for the information😊
Yes they are olive trees, but the drought means no olives. Poor desperate olive farmers with no harvest!
Thanks for clarifying! It’s really sad to hear about the drought and its impact on olive farmers. I hope they see better times soon. It was interesting to see the trees-I noticed some looked like baby plants, while others were a bit bigger.
Cool video! I laughed really hard at the bus ride to the ferry because it seemed like there was noone in the driver's seat. Also just a heads-up that nestle is a horrible company that doesnt respect human rights
hanks for watching, and I'm glad you enjoyed the video! The bus ride to the ferry was something else-happy it made you laugh! And thanks for the heads-up about Nestlé; I'll definitely keep that in mind.
54 hours... this clearly shows that the train is absolutely no alternative to plane, flying Amsterdam > Tangier is 2.5 hours
I get that flying is faster, but I’m more about enjoying the journey, the views, and the experiences along the way. If you take the quickest train route, it’s actually about 34 hours, but I went with a longer route to make the most of the trip! Thank you for sharing your thoughts 😊